1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a linear guideway with a changeable oil-storage unit which enables the oil-storage unit to be assembled to or disassembled away from the linear guideway quickly and easily, thus providing a long lasting automatic self-lubrication function for the linear guideway.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
Currently, linear guideway has been widely applied to precision machinery and general mechanism, so self lubricating function of a linear guideway has become more and more important. So far, the self-lubricating methods are generally divided into two types: using an oil-bearing material and smearing the oil of the oil-bearing material to the surface of the rail, or fixing a lubrication unit to the sliding block.
The method of using an oil bearing material, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,867, U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,457, U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,766, is to fix an oil bearing material to the outer side of the end caps at both sides of the sliding block, the oil is stored in the oil bearing material and then the bearing material keeps contacting the surface of the rail during the movement of the sliding block, thus smearing the oil directly to the surface of the rail, and consequently, the rollers will be lubricated indirectly by the oil on the surface of the rail during rolling motion. Another lubrication method is to fix an oil-storage unit to the outer side of the end caps at both sides of the sliding block, in the oil-storage is stored a small amount of lubricating oil, so that the oil will flow via the end caps to lubricate the rail.
Both of the above-mentioned oil-bearing material and the oil-storage unit only can store a small amount of oil, so the lubrication effect will not last for a long time. However, the service life of the linear guideway is 5-10 years or above, as a result, the rail of the linear guideway will be spoiled ahead of its service life time, due to lack of lubrication. On the other hand it will be time-consuming and difficult when the oil-bearing material and the oil-storage unit are assembled to or disassembled from the sliding block since they are fixed by screwing method.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.